PhD-Students

At TU Braunschweig there are different ways to do a doctorate, which can differ in terms of the type of supervision and/or funding, among other things.

• Doctorate in employment at TU Braunschweig: Here you are employed as a research assistant at an institute and do research and teach under the guidance of your supervisor. The duration of the doctoral phase usually varies between three and five years and depends on various factors. Your main supervisor is usually a professor at TU Braunschweig. Depending on the faculty, other persons are also permitted to supervise you; this is regulated in the faculty doctoral regulations.
• Doctorate with a scholarship and external doctorate: As a doctoral student, you can also be financed by scholarships from various organisations in Germany and abroad. In this case, you are not employed at TU Braunschweig, but you have the opportunity to use the TU Braunschweig infrastructure (e.g. laboratories) for your own research work. In the case of an external doctorate, funding is provided, for example, by a non-university research institution or a company, where you usually also carry out the majority of the doctoral project. In both cases, the main supervisor is a professor at TU Braunschweig or other persons approved by the faculty doctoral regulations.
• Doctorate in a research training group: Research training groups and similar formats are usually externally funded, thematically oriented and temporary research associations for the purpose of promoting young researchers, e.g. DFG Research Training Groups. A doctorate within the framework of a research training group or a graduate school includes a structured, mandatory curriculum in which you are supervised by several researchers. In addition, this form of doctorate includes an interdisciplinary and inter-faculty training and further education system. Admission to a research training group usually takes place at a single point in time at the beginning of the research training group's term. Doctoral students can be financed by means of scholarships or within the framework of an employment relationship at TU Braunschweig. The duration of a doctorate at a graduate school or a research training group is approximately three to four years.

In order to be able to do a doctorate at TU Braunschweig, different requirements for admission to a doctorate are usually necessary in addition to a completed Master's degree, depending on the subject. Additional achievements may be required. This is regulated in detail in the respective faculty doctoral regulations. Please consult the doctoral regulations and the offices for doctoral affairs of the relevant faculty .

Office for Doctoral Affairs  Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Fakultät
Office for Doctoral affairs Faculty of Life Sciences
Office for Doctoral Affairs Faculty Architecture, Civil Engineering & Environmental Sciences
Office for Doctoral Affairs Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Office for Doctoral Affairs Fakultät für Elektrotechnik, Informationstechnik, Physik
Office for Doctoral Affairs Faculty of Humanities and Studies in Education

To find a supervisor for your doctoral topic, you can apply for an advertised doctoral position in your field, or send a written speculative application with a project outline and CV to an institute that researches and teaches in your chosen topic. To do this, you should already have very precise ideas about the topic and objectives of your doctoral thesis. You can find information and possible contact persons on the websites of the faculties, institutes or at our four main research areas. If you come from abroad, you can also contact the Mobil Researchers' Centre for advice.

Vacancies

Core research areas at TU Braunschweig

Institutes at TU Braunschweig

Mobile Researchers' Centre

There are various ways to finance a doctorate. Often, doctoral students choose a temporary position at a university or research institution. You can find job offers at TU Braunschweig here:

Job offers

In addition, scholarships offer the opportunity to support your doctorate individually. The financial benefits only support the preparation of your dissertation and do not oblige you to teach.

You will find numerous scholarship offers in the scholarship database "Stipendienlotse" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and in the DAAD scholarship database. Please tick the box "Doctorate" in the filter options for the field "Educational phase" or "Programmes for" in order to have only relevant offers displayed.

Scholarship database of the BMBF
DAAD scholarship database

Finally, a doctorate can also be financed with the help of a loan, just like a degree programme. Numerous banks and credit institutions offer student loans. Some of them, such as KfW-Bankengruppe, also offer loans for doctoral students. We recommend that you compare all loan offers in advance and check all conditions carefully.

If you would like to study for a doctorate at TU Braunschweig with a foreign degree, TU Braunschweig must check and recognise your degree. The Mobile Researchers' Services will support you in this process. Please send the following documents in a PDF file:

• Bachelor's degree certificate and all lists of grades in the original language and in German or English translation
• Master's degree certificate and all lists of grades in the original language and in German or English translation
• Curriculum vitae

to: 

more(at)tu-braunschweig.de

We will then inform you whether your degree can be considered formally sufficient for admission to doctoral studies at TU Braunschweig.

Please note that in some cases we have to request a written statement from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB). This procedure can take up to eight weeks.

For further information and support for international Phd students, please contact the Mobile Researchers' Services:

Mobile Researchers' Services